Chapter 5 Questions Deck

1) The 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park were widespread and severe. A few weeks after many regions were burned

C) grasses and herbaceous vegetation began sprouting.

2) The regions that were severely burned in the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park illustrated

A) resiliency and rapid recovery

3) Many organisms recovered quickly after the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park because

C) they are adapted to forest fires as a normal selective factor.

4) Which of the following contributed significantly to the initial regrowth of plants in the regions burned by the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fire?

A) the location of unburned sections near burned regions

5) Biomes characterize regions with similar types of

A) vegetation and climatic conditions.

6) In general, (about food chains)

B) food chains are interconnected to form food webs.

7) Energy is

A) lost in the form of heat as energy is passed up a food chain.

8) A large oak tree with its abundant leaves glimmering in the sun on an early fall morning represents

D) an autotrophic producer.

9) Bison grazing on grasses growing in a meadow represent

A) a consumer eating a producer.

10) Dung beetles feeding on the waste of cattle, grazing on hay in a field, represent

A) a decomposer feeding on the wastes of a consumer eating a producer.

11) Nutrients essential for plant growth are returned to the soil by

A) decomposers.

Deep in the ocean off the shore of Japan, are communities nestled around hydrothermal vents where super heated water, springs from the bottom of the ocean. No sunlight ever penetrates to these deep regions. In these communities, bacteria have special enzymes that allow them to form organic matter by chemosynthesis. These communities frequently have worms, clams, shrimp, and many other organisms clustered together.

The following questions address this hydrothermal vent community.

12) In such a system, fish feed on shrimp that feed on the bacteria. This food chain represents a

D) secondary consumer eating a primary consumer which then eats a producer.

17) To feed its young, an owl captures mice that eat grains. The owl also eats small snakes that feed on these mice. The diet of owls represents the roles of

B) a secondary and tertiary consumer.

18) Examine the food web described by this figure. What would happen if the population of zooplankton decreased suddenly by 80% and stayed low for several years?

A) the arctic cod population would decrease

19) Examine the food web described by this figure. Which of the following organisms is at the highest trophic level?

C) beluga whale

20) In a forest, deer, raccoons, squirrels, and other animals eat and find shelter. A detritus food web occurs as their wastes accumulate on the forest floor. In this detritus web

C) decomposers function as consumers.

21) You are enjoying a salad with lettuce coated by mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, and bits of bacon from grain-fed pigs. Your salad represents

A) producers, consumers, and decomposers.

22) Cattle and termites both have symbiotic microorganisms living in their digestive tracts that help these animals by

A) digesting cellulose

23) In the fall, Rose bought some fresh apple cider without preservatives sold by the local orchard. After several weeks stored in the refrigerator, Rose noticed the taste of alcohol in the cider. Friends later told her that she had accidentally made hard cider. Rose wondered how this could happen, and then her friends explained. After some time, natural yeast in her cider

A) broke down the glucose and made alcohol by fermentation.

24) Anaerobic respiration

A) occurs without oxygen and may produce methane gas.

25) In some deserts, there are mice and lizards that are about the same size. The mice eat grains and the lizards feed on insects. Given this information, we would expect that the biomass of the

C) mice would be greater than the lizards

26) Why are there so few ecosystems with more than four levels of consumers?

A) because biomass decreases by about 90% at each level moving up

27) The information of an energy pyramid reveals that

A) it is expensive and inefficient to get most of your dietary calories from meats.

28) Which of the following animals in this figure would be expected to require the largest area per individual animal?

B) hawk

29) Productivity of an ecosystem is best determined by the

D) amount of biomass added each year.

30) If the sun's energy could be measured in units like money, which of the following organisms would be the most expensive?

B) a fox

31) Environmental pollutants such as PCB's contaminate oceans and other aquatic systems. Plankton in the ocean become contaminated by PCB's and pass this along through the food chain. A pregnant woman has been cautioned to limit her consumption of food that may be high in PCBs. If she consumes food from a nearby contaminated ocean, we would expect that the most contaminated foods would be

C) fish that eat shrimp.

32) A reverse biomass pyramid is typical of

C) aquatic ecosystems because top consumers live much longer than producers.

34) Energy is lost as it moves from one trophic level to the next because

A) one trophic level does not consume the entire trophic level below it.

B) some of the calories consumed drive cellular activities and do not add mass

C) some ingested materials are undigested and eliminated.

D) All of the above.

35) In general, biomes at higher latitudes are most like

A) biomes at higher latitudes.

36) Biomes with more than 75 centimeters (30 inches) of rain a year which never experience freezing temperatures are most likely found

B) nearest the equator at low altitudes.

37) Biomes with permafrost are most likely

C) located near the poles and without any trees

38) Biomes with less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain a year are

D) deserts.

39) Biomes intermediate in precipitation and temperature at lower elevations are commonly

C) grasslands

40) Most warm desert biomes of the world are located

A) about 20-30 degrees latitude north or south.

41) Which biome is characterized by frequent fires and rich soils?

C) grasslands and prairies

42) Which biome is characterized by the highest annual rainfalls?

C) tropical rain forests

43) Which biome is characterized by permafrost?

A) tundra

44) You visit a region with two-way currents to see where many marine organisms inhabit shallow, nutrient rich waters. You are visiting

A) an estuary.

45) As you paddle along in your canoe, you pass alligators, herons, turtles, and tall marsh grasses on your journey through Everglades National Park. This magnificent ecosystem is one of the most famous examples of

C) a wetland.

46) Walking along a large city park on a hot summer day, you look for a cool resting place and sit down on a large rock under a willow tree, at the quiet edge of a stream. You have searched for and found an example of a

A) microclimate.

47) Primary productivity of the open oceans is very limited because of

C) the shortage of nutrients.

48) Which of the following represent ecosystems with high average annual net primary productivity?

A) algal beds, reefs, swamps, and marshes

What once was an open pasture on a long abandoned farm has changed over time, without the direct influence of humans. After the cattle had been removed, shrubs and bushes could be seen dotting the grass-covered hillsides. A few years later, small pine trees and then larger deciduous trees appeared. Now, there are so many trees and shaded regions it is difficult to tell that this was once a field.

The following questions relate to this description.

49) The changes in this field, from grasses to shrubs to trees, represent

A) ecological succession.

50) These ecological changes in the abandoned pasture represent

D) secondary succession.

51) In this wooded region that was once pasture, a mature forest of towering oaks and hickory trees has taken over. However, change is still apparent, as a large patch of young shrubs and small trees are growing where several large trees were toppled by a storm several years ago. Collectively, this wooded regions represents

A) a climax ecosystem.

Moss invades and establishes itself on bare rock, accumulating the beginnings of soil. After several years, enough soil has become established that grasses begin to grow where there was once bare rock. Without the moss building up soil, the grasses would have had no chance.

The following questions relate to this description.

52) The mosses changed the environment enough to permit grasses to grow in a process called

B) facilitation.

53) The establishment of the mosses on bare rock and eventual addition of grasses represents

B) primary succession

54) The natural succession of a small farm pond will tend to

D) make the pond more likely to freeze solid in the winter.

55) As successional changes occur in an ecosystem, new species take advantage of new conditions. Where do these new species come from?

B) they come from surrounding ecosystems in other stages of succession

56) Compared to an ecosystem with just a single stage of succession, an ecosystem with a variety of successional stages

B) has greater biodiversity

57) If fire is suppressed in forests that naturally experience frequent fires,

D) the frequency of crown fires increases.

58) The frequency of crown fires will decrease if

B) smaller forest fires are allowed to burn naturally.

59) Crown fires

A) create a mosaic of successional stages in an ecosystem.

60) About 10% of a large forest experienced a severe fire that burned all but the largest trees. Soon after the fire, the landowner consulted biologists to ask what should be done to the burned region. The biologists explained that if the landowner does nothing,

C) the region will naturally recover and eventually become forest again.

61) Which of the following represents a resilience mechanism?

B) the emergence of a meadow in a recently burned forest

62) Which one of the following best represents a negative tipping point?

A) logging trees and preventing their regrowth in a forest

64) This region of Iceland once was covered with forests. However, humans logged the trees and grazed sheep on the logged regions, preventing natural regeneration. This situation, in which one ecosystem has now been converted to another, represents

A) a tipping point for this ecosystem

65) About 40% of the land's primary production on Earth

A) has been appropriated to meet human needs.

66) One of the greatest human impacts on natural ecosystems results from

A) the disruption of natural biogeochemical cycles.

67) Which one of the following contributes the most to global climate change?

B) the use of natural gas to heat homes

68) Some developers in your town want to fill in an estuary to build a condominium with a wonderful view of a beach. They argue that building and selling apartments in the condominium will add jobs and income to the region. However, educated citizens ask about the cost of the development in lost ecosystem functions. They argue that in their local community, the jobs added in construction may be offset by expected losses in

A) water quality and the local fishing industry.

69) Which of the following industries is most similar to a natural ecosystem service?

A) pest control

70) One of the reasons that humans continue to convert ecosystems to more direct human uses is that

A) the benefits are experienced locally while the losses are experienced regionally or globally

71) Many polluted ecosystems will recover if we stop polluting them. This illustrates

D) the natural resilience of ecosystems.

72) Restoration ecologists try to

A) restore destroyed or damaged ecosystems to their native conditions.

73) For nearly 50 years, a farmer has raised corn and soybeans on his family's 1,000-acre farm by a river. Now in retirement, the farmer wants to return the farmland to its natural state as a wetland in the floodplain of the river. The farmer will most need the services of

B) a restoration ecologist

74) The growing human population

C) will increase the need for ecosystem services.

75) Ecosystem management values most

A) ecological sustainability.

76) Our increasing human population requires that the future management of natural systems be

A) towards sustainability.

77) As we consider the pressing demands of a growing human population, ecosystem services must

A) not be taken for granted.

78) The best ecosystem management requires

A) good stewardship and sustainability.

Native populations of indigenous people living deep in the Brazilian rain forest have lived off the land for many centuries. Now iron ore mining companies are expanding into these regions. Government officials want to resolve the growing conflicts between the natives and the mining industry. They have been urged to bring together all of the interested parties.

The following questions relate to this description.

79) Which of the following groups would represent the primary stakeholders in this dispute?

A) representatives of the mining company

B) the native people

80) The mining company operations in the forest will likely lead to the loss of ecosystem services, such as